Japanese economic growth data for the second quarter of 2019

GDP (seasonally adjusted) for Q2, preliminary, 0.4% q/q … a big beat, at least on this early indication

  • expected 0.1%, prior 0.6%

GDP Annualized (seasonally adjusted) for Q2, preliminary 1.8% y/y

  • expected 0.5%, prior 2.2%

GDP Nominal (seasonally adjusted) for Q2, preliminary 0.4% q/q

  • expected 0.1%, prior 0.8%

GDP Deflator y/y for Q2, preliminary 0.4%, also higher than expected 9way short of the BOJ target of course)

  • expected 0.3%, prior 0.1% (an inflation indicator)

GDP Consumer Spending y/y for Q2, preliminary 0.6% q/q for a miss

  • expected is 0.7%, prior was -0.1%
  • up for the third quarter in a row, albeit not as strong as fprecasts

GDP Business Spending y/y for Q2, preliminary 1.5% q/q … beat

  • expected 0.8%, prior was 0.3%
  • capex up for the third quarter in a row

OK, much better than central forecasts for growth. Which should suggest the BOJ has room to pull back on the stimulus a little …. except of course the inflation indicator is not anywhere near the 2% target.

more to come